August 21, 2009

Gov. Sonny Perdue has held several meetings with Georgia banking leaders in recent weeks to discuss the crisis that has engulfed the state’s banking industry. Georgia leads the nation in bank failures over the past year with 21, and the governor wanted to see “what we could do going forward to make banking in Georgia better,” said Carolyn Brown, president and CEO of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia, who attended one of the sessions.

Brown said the short answer from those present at her meeting was, not much, if anything.“I don’t think there’s anything at the state level that could have been done to prevent this,” Brown said.Whether Perdue will follow that advice is unclear at this point. Bert Brantley, the governor’s communications director, said the meetings generated “a lot of good information” that’s being mulled over.